


Going Through the Motions

by RiYuYami



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU origin story for Bro, M/M, Pre-Sburb/Sgrub, character death later on, possible sexual content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:23:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2123457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You send your favorite television star a letter, never expecting the letter to be read on the show. Having it privately replied to was just a happy and terrifying surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story based on an old origin story I came up with for Bro Strider, this is a gift for my moirail who loves the idea and loves BroGrandpa / DirkJake.

_December 3 rd, 1975_

Reports of a meteor crashing in Huston are all over the news, but when investigators arrived to examine the site of the crash, all they found was a crater where a newborn baby laid crying.

The baby was only in a diaper, the only possessions he had on him was a terrifying looking puppet he wouldn’t let go of and a small, handwritten note written in blue that simply read ‘dirk’.

No evidence of parents responsible for the baby was found and he was placed into the care of an orphanage here in Huston. The care takers accept him, even if they weren’t sure what to do with this mysterious meteor baby. 

The reason for the meteor crash was never discovered, neither was the meteor itself. No one could explain why the baby was in the crater to begin with, well, except one person and he wouldn’t be born for another twenty years or so.

-

_August 14 th 1980_

Your name is Dirk and that is the only name you have. Some of the other children in the building have another name and some have three, but you only have one. Aside from the nicknames some of the other kids have given you.

They call you a nerd because you’re smart and do well in reading, they call you polka dot face because of the freckles on your body, they call you weird because you talk to your puppet friend, and they call you freak because you’re scary with your golden eyes.

You don’t like to talk to anyone, you just like to sit in corners and read, or play with Lil’ Cal. He’s your only friend, your cool best bro. “Hey Dork!” You hear one of the other kids say, walking up to you with a dodge ball in his hands.

“It’s Dirk,” you correct him, “and what do you want?” You asked, looking up from the book you had found in the small library that was donated to the orphanage.

“Mr. Jones said you have to play with us cause you can’t keep sittin’ around.” The older kid snorted at you. “So you’re gonna put down that book and stupid puppet and play with us.”

You raised an eyebrow and sighed, telling Lil’ Cal to watch your book when you set it down. After dusting your pants off, you follow this kid to the black top, ignoring some of the whispering around you. You have a bad idea about this, especially when you’re informed that you will be playing bombardment.

They place you on a team, which you realize is full of the smaller, weaker kids. Jesus Christ, they put a sick kid on your team, these older, bigger kids just tricked you, they want to hurt the meek. You’re not gonna put up with that shit.

The game started and already some of the kids on your side are struck with the hard, rubber balls. You dodge as best as you can before grabbing a ball, picking it up. You glare at one of the kids and throw it, hitting him in the face. You caught the other guys off guard and quickly grab another ball, throwing it and hitting another kid in the chest.

You had them spooked, you were going to take them all down. At least, you thought that, until one of them ran off the court and grabbed Cal, holding a rock, he was going to hit your best bro. You screamed and charged towards him, striking him in the face with your first, seeing only blinding white as you struck again.

The next thing you know, you hear Mr. Jones yelling at you to calm down and to stop while someone pulls you off the kid, who is bleeding from his mouth and nose, crying really hard. Your fists hurt from making contact with his face and your throat burns from you screaming.

You got in trouble for a week for starting a fight, everyone stays away from you from now on, but their comments only get worse, just said in hushed words behind your back. You learn to ignore them, even if they do hurt when you hear them.

A week after the fight, you run away from the orphanage.

Before bed, you packed up a backpack with some of the few things in the building you liked, like a book on philosophy you had found and an orange blanket you were given when you were a baby. You put some little baggies full of snacks into the bag you took from the kitchen, waiting for everyone to fall asleep. Once they were and it was past midnight, you grab Cal and sneak out of the building.

You get off the property by going through a large hole in the brick wall around the building, hidden behind a bush. It’s late at night and you have no idea where you’re going but you’ll find somewhere better, maybe find people who actually like you and that are not obligated to care like the employees.

Well, okay, Cal likes you, but that’s normal, Cal loves you and tells you things. Weird things, that are really dark… but that’s okay, Cal’s funny like that.

You’ve never been off the property before, you have no idea where you’re going but you think you’ll find somewhere great. So far, you get down a few streets before finding a park. You’ve never seen a real park before and found that the playground was empty, you’ve never gotten a chance to play on the one at your old home, everyone else always played on it.

Plus it was sort of rusty and looked like it could fall apart at any moment.

You walk up to the equipment and start to play on everything. You know you’re a stiff and a lot of people don’t see you smile, but you’re smiling now, cause you and Cal are playing and having fun. Soon, after playing on everything three times, you crawl into a tunnel in the jungle gym and lay down, using the blanket to keep warm and the backpack as a pillow. You fall asleep to the sound of bugs chirping and mild, late night traffic in the distance.

You wake up the next morning and you realize that you’ve spent the night alone and you were sort of scared because the thrill of having ran away wore off and now you don’t know what to do. You get out of the tunnel and put your things in the backpack before leaving the park.

That’s when you realized you have no idea where to go or even how to get back to your… well, you can’t really call it your home, you never did. You don’t know how to get to your not-home and you sit on the sidewalk and start to cry. You don’t cry, you haven’t cried since you were a baby, but right now you were really scared and your plan was stupid and not planned out fully and you were probably going to die out here…

“Little boy, why are you crying?”

Blinking, you look up to see an older woman staring down at you out of curiosity. She had graying black hair and slightly dark skin, much darker than your pale skin, and she wore a pair of red glasses over her beautiful, bright cyan eyes. A little feeling in the back of your head said that those eyes are the eyes of a friend, an old friend from another time, but you ignored it.

“I’m not cryin’.” You mumbled, rubbing your eyes on the back of your arm. “I don’t cry.”

“Looks like you were, you don’t have to lie to me sweetie.” She smiled and carefully kneeled down in front of you. She smelled like baked goods and gave off this positive energy that you like, you like this old lady, even if she saw you cry. She’s different from the old women that volunteer at the orphanage or come in to see the children, this lady is just so nice and you want a hug from her but you don’t say that.

“I was cryin’,” you admit, you’re not gonna lie to the nice old lady anymore, “and I’m scared cause I ran away.”

“Ran away?” She questions, frowning. “Oh no, that’s terrible. You must have your parents so worried!”

You shake your head. “I don’t have ‘em, I’m an orphan. I ran away cause I got in trouble for hittin’ ‘nother kid in the face and no one likes me there. They call me a freak.”

She frowns even more and pulls you close, you don’t know how to respond to that, it’s weird to be hugged but it’s nice. “How could anyone call you a freak? That’s not nice at all!” She turned to the paper bag she had been walking with. “I have something for you, I’m suppose to be giving these to someone but I suppose they won’t mind if one is missing.”

She pulls out a plastic container and opens it, your eyes widen when you see all sorts of cupcakes inside of it. They’re tiny and beautifully frosted and they all look so good. You hear your stomach growl and you both blink, but she giggles as you blush. “Take whichever one you want, dear.”

You nod and pick the orange one. You pull off the little paper cup and take a bite, you’ve never had anything so delicious in your life before. You take your time to eat it, to savor the taste, even though you sorta just want to smash it all into your mouth. “Thank you, miss.” You said when you finished.

“Hoo hoo! You’re welcome, little boy! And please, call me Jane.”

“Okay Jane, I’m Dirk.”

Jane smiled, showing you her buck teeth; they make you think of bunnies and you like that. “I think you need to head back home, I’m sure they miss you Dirk.”

“I don’t think they do.” You sigh, but she ruffles your hair up, standing up with a smile still on her face.

“Well, I think you need to go back, the world is a big place and you’re still so small, you need to grow a little more before you can venture out and conquer it.”

“… Will you come with me? Please?” You ask quietly. Jane gives you the sweetest smile and takes your hand, it’s soft, you like that. She walks you back and takes you inside of the building. Apparently the staff noticed you went missing and you had to tell them you ran away and that Jane found you.

You’re in trouble again, but it’s worth it, because you made a friend and her name is Jane Egbert. She comes to visit you now, twice a week, and she brings you little treats. She tells you she has a son a little older than you and he’s really nice, you’ve never met him but you believe her.

You ask if she will adopt you, she says she can’t right now but she’ll see what she can do.

Lil’ Cal says that she’s not always going to be around for you like he will be, you tell him to shut up. Cal doesn’t like that and stays quiet for a day, when he talks again, he tells you Jane will die the same way you came to earth. You don’t understand and you ignore what he meant by that.

The second time Jane visits you; she gives you a pair of sunglasses that are pointed and sharp. She said she’s had them for a long time from her ‘brother’ and didn’t know where they came from. She said she felt they were meant for you and you took them, putting them on. You felt comfortable having them on your face and they were perfect. Plus they kept the sun out of your eyes and you were happy about that, the sun hurts your eyes really badly.

Lil’ Cal’s strange talks seem to stop after that, in fact, you can now make eye contact with him for a long time rather than a few seconds before you start to feel terrified.

-

_June 12 th 1981_

You have permission to watch the television in the main room for an hour, and that’s all you need. You don’t really watch television except for one show, and it’s the best show in the world.

It’s called  _Jake Harley’s Adventure Hour_ , not the cleverest of titles but you still love the show. You came across it a few months ago when you were told you could watch the television, seeing as you never did much else around the building outside of reading and spending time with Jane when she came to see you for a few hours.

You had flipped through boring shows and obnoxious cartoons (it wouldn’t be until a bit later when you discovered My Little Pony and you’d end up watching it with the girls, giving you another bit of television time), until you stopped on the channel Jake’s show played on, just as it started.

All the episodes start with Jake Harley telling you it’s time for the show and the theme plays. After that, he tells you where in the world he will be visiting today or what animals he would be trying to find. He was an excitable man and always got himself into messes, there was one episode where he had gotten into a fight with a lion and ended up wrestling it into submission, laughing the whole time.

Jake is an obnoxious, clueless man but you adored him, you thought he was the coolest thing in the whole universe. You loved watching him take on any challenge in his way and telling the viewing audience interesting facts about today’s topic.

But what you loved most about him was… well… him, you liked how he looked, the way his laugh sounded and how cute his smile was. And his eyes, those emerald gems that you were jealous of, they were much nicer than your own topaz ones.

But… they also gave you a similar feeling that you got from Jane when you look at her sometimes, like you know her from another time, and yet you had never met her until that day at the park.

Jake gives you this same feeling, even though you’ve never met him before. One day you want to though, so you can tell him how he’s your hero, how you want to go out and do great things in the world, just like him. You want to tell him that you love his show and that you love him.

Though you’re not gonna say that last part, cause apparently if a guy says he loves another guy, it’s bad. That’s what you found out from one of the staff members, he got mad at another one for apparently liking a guy, which is weird because can’t men enjoy the company of other men? You know that lots of boys are friends here and stuff and they don’t get in trouble, is it bad when you’re a grown up?

You want to be friends with Jake, maybe because you’re a kid, it won’t be bad, he can still be your friend! And maybe, when you become friends, he’ll be your best friend and when you’re old enough, you can marry him so you can be with him forever.

You don’t know if you’ll ever meet him but you know that you can tell him how much you want to be his best friend in a letter. At the end of every episode of Jake’s show, he reads a few fan letters sent in to him and answers them back to the camera, always smiling when he does. It’s a cute smile, cause he’s got bunny teeth like Jane.

You decide to write him a letter, you told Jane you wanted Jake to know how much you admire him and want to be his friend. Jane had a lost look on her face when you told her about Jake. You asked her why she looked sad and she said that she just remembered something from a long time ago.

You want to know what it was, but Jane ruffles your hair (she always does this, you should put a hat on or something so she doesn’t, but you think they’ll mess your hair up even more) and tells you to go right ahead and do it.

You found a notebook in the head of the building’s office and took it a few months ago, you’ve been using it to draw and come up with cool ideas in it. You haven’t shown anyone your drawings and plans, not even Jane or Cal, its special and your little secret. Today though, you’re not gonna draw in it, you’re gonna write in it while you watch the show.

You take your favorite orange color pencil (you use to hate the color but now you like it, ironically maybe) and start to write your letter, making sure that you spelled everything correctly and that you have no grammar mistakes.

_Dear Mr. Jake Harley._

_Hi, my name is Dirk and I’m a big fan. I always watch your show when it’s on and it’s my favorite in the whole world. I wanted to talk to you because I want you to know that I really like you and I want to be your friend. Can we be friends? I don’t have any here at the orphanage, except Lil’ Cal. He and I are bros, even if he’s a puppet. And Jane! But she doesn’t live here, and I wish she did, but that’s alright._

_Um, I guess when you talk to new people you say stuff about yourself. I like horses, cause they’re awesome, and robots. I also like puppets and swords but they won’t let me have a sword so I use sticks and stuff I find. And my favorite color is orange and I really love hats but I don’t wear ‘em cause they mess up my hair. Well, if you wanna be my friend, send me a letter please._

_From Dirk, age five and a half._

You read over the letter three times before nodding, happy with how it sounds. You fold it carefully, and put it into an envelope before you start to doodle all over it, drawing a horse and a robot, along with a drawing of Jake on it as well. You don’t think you drew him right, but you can’t erase color pencil so it will have to do.

You carefully write the address from the end of the show, you remember it from all the times you’ve sat and watched it appear on the screen, and put the orphanage’s address on the envelope as well. You put your first name on it, but put a last name you decided for yourself, Strider. You like how it sounds, it sounds amazing and strong and a name that someone who doesn’t take anyone else’s shit would have.

Plus you remember hearing it from Lil’ Cal when he was angry at you for having the shades, he called you Dirk Strider, you decided to take the last name and make it yours. You finish by taking a stamp you ‘borrowed’ and stick it in the corner of the envelope, its perfect!

When the show is over and some of the other kids come in to watch whatever they wanna watch, you quickly bolt and head outside. Some of the other children are out there already but they don’t pay much attention to you, no one really does anymore, you only talk when you need to and your awesome shades put people off.

You make your way to the hole in the wall, no one has bothered to fix it, and slip under it. You make your way to the blue mail box outside of the building and put it inside before running back for the hole. You can’t wait for Jake to read your letter on T.V. like he does with everyone else’s! You know you have a huge, goofy grin on your face but you don’t care.

There’s a little bit of hope in your life for some new happiness, you can smile about it all you want.

TBC

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly have no idea where Bro got his shades, he never had them on the meteor and I’m only guessing on his birthday and age, considering that Dirk’s birthday is the same as Dave’s.
> 
> Also, in canon, Grandpa took care of Mom (it’s mentioned in Hussie’s notes in the third Homestuck book), so I like to think that Nanna had a hand in helping raise Bro. I don’t know why she’s in Texas right now, probably just keeping a distance from the Batterwitch’s company in Washington.
> 
> And it’s a personal headcanon that Grandpa was a television host, think of his show being like Nigel Thornberry’s, only without all the Tim Curry and creepy eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

_June 26 st, 1981_

Once again, you’ve got your hour of television to yourself. You love how no one bothers you during this time, especially after this one time you picked up a plastic bat and started swinging it about to scare off some kids who had the nerve to interrupt your only time to watch Jake.

You sat as close to the screen as you could handle, watching as Jake informed his fateful viewers of what great things he had did in today’s episode, just as a little recap, before it went to the final commercial break before he read the letters.

Patiently, you’ve waited two weeks for your letter to appear on the show. It wasn’t read in last week’s episode, you would never admit it to anyone, but you almost cried because you were so hopeful that he would read it. But… you knew deep down that you shouldn’t get your hopes up, lots of kids wrote him letters and he only answered a few of them, even with all your colorful drawings, you had a snowball’s chance in Hell of him deciding to pick up your envelope.

You pouted and watched as a few minutes worth of commercials played, your heart hurting because you had a feeling you were going to be disappointed once more. It really hurt and you didn’t like that, you didn’t like being disappointed about Jake rejecting you in anyway.

The show returned and Jake was sitting on a rock, smiling at the camera. “Hello fellow explorers! Time for me to read your letters and answer your questions!” He winked at the camera before looking at the small pile of paper next to him. “Let’s see, what will be a good one today… oh my! This is a fine looking specimen we have here, folks!”

You think your heart skipped a beat when he held up a very familiar looking envelope, covered in little drawings of a horse, a robot, and a drawing of Jake himself. You gulped, watching as he cut it open. “Looks like I have a little artist as a fan, hehe, how cute!”

He complimented you, he actually complimented you and your silly drawings!

Jake smiled as he pulled out your folded letters and looked over it, his smile faltering a little as he blinked. You watched as Jake turned to the camera, a bit of a blush on his face as he grinned. “Golly, well viewers, I think I’m going to do something special about this sweet, little letter. I’m gonna reply to this privately! Looks like you’re going to get a special little treat from me, old sport, and don’t worry; I’ll make sure it’s a dandy of a response, boy howdy!”

You didn’t watch the rest of the episode, you sort of blacked out from joy.

-

_July 12 th, 1981_

It’s been a month since you sent Jake your letter and instead of waiting patiently for him to read your letter on the show, you’re waiting for his response. You’re sitting on your bed, dinking around with a few of the little horse toys that you stole from the play room, when Mrs. Malloy walked in. “Dirk, you have a letter.” She sounded a bit confused, seeing as you never get mail, and you were suddenly in front of her, holding out your hand. 

She handed you the letter and you waited for her to leave before running to your bed and looking it over. It had your address on it, along with an address that wasn’t the one from the show, but it has the name ‘Jake Harley’ above the address. He must have sent it from where he had been filming, you figured his mail goes somewhere first before coming to him.

On the back of the envelope was a drawing of a green demon-looking skull, it looked so cool! Carefully, you opened it, not wanting to rip this, and dumped the contents. A folded letter dropped on your lap, along with a photo. Picking it up, you saw it was a Polaroid of Jake; he was standing there, pointing at the camera as if he was using his hands as fake guns, and winking. Under the picture was a message, written in green ink, that read ‘Double pistols and a wink!’

You could feel your cheeks and the tips of your ears burn as you stared at the picture. You couldn’t believe that not only did he take time out of his life to write you a letter; he actually sent you a photograph of himself! You almost screamed, almost, but you don’t do that. Dirk Strider does not scream over something as amazing as this.

Setting the picture down, you pick up the letter and begin to read what he wrote.

_Dear dirk_

_hello there chap!_

_This is jake harely and it was just a true delight to read your letter. Of course ill be your friend its always just the bees knees to have a good friend! Now i must say its rather upsetting that you don't have that many friends where you are but i do hope youre happy with me being a part of your small cluster of best pals even if im just a bumbling ole fool! *laughs before straightening collar* If its dandy with you we can send letters to communicate. It will be fun! Well be pen pals! Since you told me stuff about yourself let me say a little about me. I myself love adventuring but im sure you knew that. Hahaha! I also enjoy movies of any type all movies have a certain charm to them! I also enjoy a good comic especially if they have spider women or a lovely blue dame in them *wink* and guns. Im quite the sharpshooter if i do say so myself.  And my favorite color is green._

_From your new friend_

_jake harley_

You smile and grab your pillow, using it to muffle the happy sounds you make as your whole face goes red. He wrote you back and he wants to be your friend! You can’t believe this; you can’t believe that your hero wants to be good friends with you!

Tossing the pillow aside, you quickly grab your notebook and start coming up with ideas for what you want to tell him in your next response. 

-

“Jane, how do I look?” You asked, sitting on your bed after you tried to fix your bangs. Today was such a good day, what with the letter and all, plus Jane came to visit! And she brought you cinnamon cookies too, which is just awesome.

Jane smiled, holding up the camera she had borrowed from one of the staff. “You look just fine, sweetie. No need to be embarrassed, it’s just a picture.”

“But I wanna look good for Jake! I don’t want him thinkin’ I look like a slob!”

“Dirk, you know darn well that you look nothing like a slob. Now smile for the camera.” She got the camera adjusted, you guys were only allowed to take one picture, since the staff member you borrowed it from was really nit picky about it and she didn’t want you wasting her pictures.

You gulped and smiled just a little as you looked at the camera, seeing the flash and hearing the click a moment later. You blinked away the spots from the flash as the picture came out of the camera. Jane set it aside to let it develop. “Do you think he’ll like it?”

“Of course he will, that old coot will love it, I just know it.” You learned a while ago that Jane was Jake’s sister, well, they weren’t really related but they were adopted siblings. She said she hadn’t seen Jake in quite some time, because he had ran away from their home. She didn’t tell you why or very much else and you didn’t press her for information, she looked sad when she spoke and you didn’t want to upset her more.

“Okay Jane.” You nodded, grabbing a cookie from the plate she brought. “Wanna see the picture he showed me?”

She nodded and you took it out of the shoe box where you kept a few things you liked inside. It had a glass marble in it that was orange and green, a heart shaped button you found when you were in the park when you had ran away, a few pictures you cut out from magazines that you liked, and a sock puppet you had made. Your reply from Jake and his photo sat on top of it of all these things.

You picked up the picture handed it to Jane. She looked at it, smiling softly. “Yep, that’s Jake, still with that goofy smile and care free lifestyle.”

“He’s so cool, I really wanna meet him.” You say, kicking your feet a little.

“And one day you will.” Jane said softly, petting your head. “You just have to be patient.”

You nodded, you feel like there was more to what she just said, but you don’t question it.

-

_July 24 th, 1981_

You sat in your hotel room in Washington, you and your film crew were going to be recording an episode of your show here, this time on grizzly bears, you don’t think you’ve covered those yet! You heard a knock at your door and opened it, seeing your assistant; he was holding an envelope for you, which you happily took.

You had specifically requested that when your studio sent you the fan mail, that any from Dirk Strider were to be given to you personally. It looks like they were listening since you got a new one from him, which made you smile.

Sitting down on the bed, you looked at the envelope; Dirk had drawn a green skeleton monster for you this time on the back, which made you laugh. What a sweet kid, you’re glad you replied to him privately. You don’t know what it was that made you do that, something about that name sparked something inside of you that said ‘Jake, this boy is very important’. Oh, you found the contents of the letter to be interesting, Dirk seems like a very good kid, but that name… it just… you feel like it means a lot to you.

You got the same feeling from Jane and from your sweet little friend, Roxy Lalonde. You’re gonna have to give her a call when you’re done with Dirk, gotta make sure your future assistant scientist is doing alright and not making cat clones again.

Cutting open the envelope, you open it to find a photo and a letter. Taking out the photo, you looked at the boy in the picture. He was sitting on a bed, his blond hair a spiky mess, like he had just finger combed it, and he had a pair of pointed shades on his freckled face. Hey, you recognized those shades; they were the ones you found forever ago back at your childhood home! You wonder who gave them to him.

Setting the picture aside, you pick up the letter and began to read.

_Dear Jake,_

_I didn’t think you’d have read my letter or even reply to it, so I was really shocked when you did! I’m really happy you want to be my friend, you have no idea how much this means to me. It’s not every day a kid gets to be friends with his hero._

_Cal doesn’t think it’s all that cool, but he’s just being a jerk lately. He doesn’t like you all that much I guess, but screw him. I haven’t seen a lot of movies, but some of the ones I’ve seen suck, but they are all kid movies so yeah. Jane says hello, by the way. She said she’s your sister and stuff and that’s really cool. She also misses you, she didn’t say that but I could tell. You should call her or something. She makes really good cookies and snacks, some of the other kids here are jealous. I don’t care cause Jane is my friend and not theirs so she gets to spoil me only._

_Also, yeah, I wanna be pen pals with you. That would be really cool and stuff, yeah. Sorry, I’m embarrassed and Jane’s trying to read my letter cause I had to have her help me spell embarrassed and some other words. I think she wants to look over my reply and fix it up and stuff._

_Again, thank you so much for replying, that makes me really happy and all kinds of things. Also, thank you for the picture, I sent you one too, I hope you like it._

_-Dirk_

You chuckled lightly, so, Jane is friends with Dirk, you guess you should take his advice and get into contact with your old friend, it has been quite a number of years.

But first, you need to reply to your new pen pal!

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

You’ve spent about three years writing to Jake Harley and you love every letter and item he's sent you.

Three years hasn't done much to change you outside of your small circle of friends you've had for three years. You’re still the silent boy at the orphanage that doesn’t speak to anyone and who no one wants to adopt. You’ve come to understand that when adults come in to find a child to take home, they don’t want the odd child who wears strange sunglasses and carries around a terrifying puppet.

Jane isn’t able to adopt you; you've learned that she only comes to Huston for a few months out of the year to do business down here. You don’t really want to leave the city and move with her to Washington, as much as you would love to be adopted into a loving home with her as you've told the older woman, it’s just that, for some reason... you feel that you need to stay put, you’ve got something you’re waiting for here.

What it is… you don’t know, you just know it’s really important. It’s like a sixth sense, you have to trust it because in doing so, something important will happen. At least that’s what Jake said when you told him about this problem.

You trust Jake on this; Jake is wise about these things. Okay, he’s not the smartest guy in the world and he can’t read the atmosphere in the room, but he still has his moments of clarity and knowing what is and isn’t important.

Jake still does his show, he has no plans on stopping any time soon, there are just so many places in the world to explore and so many things to talk about. You encourage him, tell him to keep going. He takes your suggestions on places to see, seeing as you know where he has and hasn’t been. You’ll never admit that you’ve watched his show and re-runs of the episodes so many times that you know where he’s been, or that you can quote some of the lines from the show.

You may or may not have a bit of an obsession with this guy, but what can you do? He makes you happy, maybe even more so than Jane and Cal do. Sitting on your bed again, you look over the new letter, seeing that Jake was how in New York, taking a break from traveling and to spend some time with Roxy. You were told about her several times in Jake’s letters, she’s a little girl that he had found living in the streets of some town in New York. He took her to a lab/home he had built in Rainbow Falls, letting her live there.

Roxy is a very sweet girl from what he’s said, she’s got a big heart and a brilliant mind, and she’s already built a computer out of an old Apples computer she broke, a toaster, and a television. She also likes cats, tends to clone them in Jake’s lab. You didn’t know that he had a lab, that was so cool. Jake is smarter then he looks, but still, he’s an airhead.

This time he sent you a picture of himself and who you assume to be Roxy. She’s a little girl with bright blonde hair with a big curl in said hair, her eyes were bright and pink and she had the sweetest smile you’ve ever seen.

There was that weird feeling in the back of your head again as you looked at her and her cute face. You feel like you know her, that she means the world to you and that you would rather shove a sword into your dick then ever hurt her. You also feel like that you wish you could give her what she wants but you’re not sure that’s possible, or even what it is that she wants from you.

You start to write a new letter.

_Hey Jake_

_That’s really cool and shit that you’re gonna be taking a break from the show. I’m gonna miss seeing new episodes for a bit, but I’ll live, they always just re-run your show when you’re on break anyway._

_Hm, I should probably watch more stuff, but I don’t wanna. Anyway, nothing new to report here, just that Jane is heading out in two weeks to go back to Washington, that bums me out and I can’t stand it. She said she’ll try to call me and send me letters too; I really want her to stay in touch._

_Hey, you know what would be really awesome? Think you could get Roxy to send me a letter or two? Maybe we could be friends; she looks like someone I could be friends with._

_Okay, Lil’ Cal is bitching at me; he’s telling me to stop wasting time with you. I don’t know what his problem is when it comes to you, he just doesn’t like you or something, but he should because you’re the best guy in the whole universe and all of paradox space._

_Okay, I’m gonna send you this drawing I did for you. Here you go._

_-Dirk._

Giving Cal a glare, you turn away as you fold up the letter and put it into the envelope before picking up the drawing you did. You drew a picture of Jake, looking younger (based on an old picture he had sent to you of himself when he was in his mid twenties), standing over the body of some sort of monster you thought would look cool as fuck for him to take on. You folded the drawing and put it in with the letter before heading out, quickly going out of your little hole in the wall and to the mailbox, slipping it inside.

Now to play the waiting game.

-

A week later, you received two letters in the same envelope.

The first one you read was from Jake, still in the same green ink as always, you’d be shocked if he ever wrote in any other color when it came to your special letters to one another.

_Howdy dirk!_

_Oh we all know that your little puppet pal just cant stand me one bit. I bet its because he cant handle how great I am hahaha!_

_Im sorry that youre going to be without jane again for a while kiddo but dont fret she will be back before you know it! I bet shes going to spoil you just as she always does shes taken a real shine to you dirk you both have such a special little bond and I like that. I feel like if there was any tension between you two it would be devastating for you both!_

_Oh speaking of jane ive taken a notice to how your grammar has improved with each letter. Guess shes been teaching you and thats good. But she is never gonna get me to stop being lazy with my writing! *grins and winks*_

_I got your picture and i love it! You sure know how to capture a mans good side i tell you what. I look absotively posilutely dashing and rugged! What am i standing on? It looks like a sea goat monster ooh very greek like. Ive got your picture framed up in my study now i hope you dont mind._

_I dont have anything to send you today except a bonus letter from my little friend. I do hope you two get along!_

_Sincerely jake harley_

You smiled when you read that he framed your drawing, oh what an honor. You put his letter into the new shoe box you have for his letters, your other one couldn’t hold them all. After you place it in the box, you pick up the other letter, written in pink so its a bit hard to read.

_hello!_

_how are ya d-stri? can i call you d-stri??? hahaha i am soooooo gonna do it cause its a freakin bitchin ~~nixk~~ nick name_

_dont tell jake i cussed in the letter cause he wont like that ):_

_hey my name is roxy lalonde and old man jake has told me all about you so i totes knows all kinds of amazin junk about you like you have no idea how much junk there is so much junk i know about you that i built a shed for all the junk_

_unless if hes been like over the toppin and makin up ~~wilde~~ wild stories about how cool you actually are but like omg i bet you are totes the bomb ~~espeilly~~ especially with those kick butt shades_

_haha yeah jakes shows me pics of you and you are a total cutie patootie who probs got a booty! ;) *wonk!*_

_im not gonna correct the wonk you get the wonk cause the wonk is better ~~then~~ than the wink_

_sorry im like a teeny tiny ~~bet bat butt hehe~~ bit tipsy dont tell jake!!! ;) ;) *wonkwonkwankwonk!*_

_really dont tell him cause im reeeeeaaaaallllllyyyy not suppose to ~~hat~~ have the stuff in his office but i wanted to try it and its both bad an good is that possible??? gotta study that later_

_wanna be my friend too? i wanna be your friend and maybe bff!_

_*tha means best friend 5ever*_

_-roxy_

At the bottom of the letter was a doodle of a black cat with four eyes and a little note in pink that said that she wanted to draw too and that you get a mutant kitty named Vodka Mutini.

Roxy had terrible grammar when she’s drunk it seems, but you guess that some of what she wrote is just how she speaks; she’s probably picked up on that shitty lingo a lot of people have been using lately. You try not to use it all that much, but everyone and their mother does eventually. Stupid fads.

Anyway, that’s besides the point, you rather like this Roxy girl, she seems really nice and Jake’s told you several times how amazing she really is. You decide that yes, you do want to be friends with this future scientist, and you still get the feeling that, deep down, being her best friend would mean everything to you, but it will have its consequences. You’re just not sure what those are yet, same with what you can't give her that she wants from you.

That annoying head feeling is back, that one that confuses you, you just simply ignore it.

You smile a bit, you’ll reply to them later, but for now you want to take a nap. You stayed up last night working on some special blueprints for a new project you hope to start soon.

-

You open your eyes in confusion as you look around the room. This… isn’t the shared quarters you sleep in with several of the other boys, this room was… well, you couldn’t really tell what it was, but you assume it’s a bedroom.

The room had one window and a door, strange posters on the walls of odd looking horses and people dressed in blue and red that are of horrible quality, but you think they’re suppose to be like that. Puppets and weird plush toys are scattered about with broken robot parts and hats, the plush toys catch your interest and you really like how they look.

There’s a strange looking television on the wall and what looks like a huge record player thing before it, next to that is a red box that reminds you of a microwave. Your throat hurts as you look at that. There is a robot in the room as well, he’s sorta twitching and making small sounds, but he seems friendly and looks badass. By the bed is a weird looking computer and lots of technical things that you don’t understand.

What room is this? You frown and walk up to the open window and stare out in shock, seeing nothing but water stretching out over the horizon. You glance down, seeing that you’re in a building that has been reduced to its metal frame, sticking out of crystal clear waters. You pull back and quickly exit the room and into a living room-looking area, covered in more strange posters and objects. There are boxes of junk scattered about, labeled in red marker, faded from the light of the sun but you can still read them.

Some read ‘movies’, ‘books’, ‘sbahj scripts’, and you notice some say ‘dry goods’ too. The boxes make the room feel cramped and you’re nervous, what sort of place is this? It feels… like home, but at the same time, it doesn’t. Like this is only one of two places you could ever call your home, but also, it’s the same place at the same time, just… not.

You don’t understand this, that feeling in the back of your head is back and you hate it, why does it mean? Why does it happen when you’re around Jane, or talking to Jake and now with Roxy?

You clutch at your head, scared, you hate being scared, but that’s what you are now. You feel like you want to scream, like you want to just ran away and find Roxy. But what about Jane and Jake? You can’t run away to where they are, that’s impossible.

And your brother, ha! As if!

Wait… brother? You don’t have a brother; you’re an only child that was found abandoned, why would you even think you had a brother? But… you glance at a picture on a wall, actually, lots of pictures in one area of wall.

You step towards the photos, seeing a blond figure in all of them, with what looks like shades on their face. You’re about ten feet away, you take a step, and the scene shatters around you.

-

You awake with a start, panting and looking around frantically. You’re back in the orphanage, still on your bed, not in that strange place above an endless ocean.

With a shaky sigh, you fall back on the bed and stare at the ceiling. What was that all about? You’ve never had a dream like that before in your life, for the most part, you rarely dream. But when you do dream, it’s of a strange place where its dark all the time but the ground glows purple, same with the beautiful buildings. Strange people in black shells wander around, they never notice as you float above them.

You never questioned those dreams; nothing ever happened in them, you just wandered around above the city or over by where a huge, long purple chain was.

Rolling on to your side, you quietly hope that you never dream of that bedroom and living room again, it felt so weird, so… real, like you’ve been there before, well, actually, it feels like you’re suppose to be there.

Shaking your head, you decide to get out of bed and go do something to keep your mind off of this bullshit. But… you can’t help but wonder what will happen the next time you return there in your dreams.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, so Dirk now dreams of the Alpha timeline, but he doesn’t understand them. I should mention that he’s not the only one, but we’ll be focusing on his dreams, and possibly someone else’s later, but I won’t say who. (And no, it’s not who you think) 
> 
> Sorry this is late; I just started a new job and had to do some last minute stuff before school starts on Monday. 
> 
> I apologize for how I wrote Roxy in this chapter, I can write her speaking better than I can when she’s writing. But she’s a little eight year old girl who found some vodka and gave it a try before writing a letter to the cute boy Jake’s friends with so she's both drunk and nervous. That’s my excuse. (Her next letter will be clearer)


	4. Chapter 4

The year is 1987 and you’re eleven years old now, still living in the orphanage. You are not a child people want. Future parents and guardians don’t want a quiet child who wears weird sunglasses and talks to puppets apparently. 

What do you care? You don’t, you don’t mind your current living conditions. For the most part, the employees let you do what you want. You’re the smartest kid in the building and doing well with your studies, you also keep to yourself and away from others. You haven’t gotten into a fight with the other kids in about a year so you’re doing alright with your tolerance towards human stupidity.

You have, however, been practicing fighting in secret outside of the building.

Jane won’t approve of the books that Jake’s sent you, things called manga, full of people fighting and kicking ass. You really like these comics, way more than the ones Jake enjoys. You’ve taken to practicing the art style, but still keeping your own, which has improved greatly since your little doodles to Jake when you first started writing him. But what interests you the most about manga is the action and the fighting. You like that sorta thing, you want to move quickly and take down enemies with just a few quick moves and maybe a slash from a sword.

God, you would do anything to get your hands on a real katana. You’ve always had a thing for swords, but since you don’t own one _(yet)_ , you make due by using sticks you find around the backyard of the building.

To improve your skills, in the middle of the night, you sneak out and practice in more open areas, and on people.

No one knows that you’re testing your fighting skills on older people on the streets. Lots of tough people out at night, you’ve only ended up with cuts and a few bruises while your opponents have had fingers broken and bones cracked. You’re thin, but you know you’re built solid, it takes a lot of effort to knock you down. You get money from the fights; people want to take on Di-Stri, the weird kid who fights adults with flash steps and make-shift swords.

All that money is going towards a good cause; you’re going to use it to afford your own place so you can finally move out of the orphanage. It will take a long time, but you get pretty good money, you just can’t fight every night. You get money for helping around the orphanage as well, just doing little odd jobs and whatnot; you get paid a dollar or two for the work, its fine, whatever helps you.

Jake is still sending you letters but sometimes you feel like it’s not enough, you want to hear his voice. Sure, you can hear it whenever his show comes on, but it’s not the same; you want to hear him speak to you directly, to say your name, to say sweet nothings to you.

He won’t do it though, you know that Jake isn’t like you, he doesn’t like guys.

Yes, you’ve figured out that girls aren’t what you like; you could never settle down with a little lady, you would rather be with a dude. A strong, muscular guy, with dark skin and salt-and-pepper colored hair, with a bushy mustache and a delicious accent…

Fuck, you’re really into just Jake from what you can tell, he’s the only man who makes your heart beat quickly, and who can make you blush like a school girl whenever he does something as simple as sending you a letter.

You want to talk to him so badly, you want that, you want to hear that wonderful voice in your ear. Jesus fuck, you’re eleven-going-on-twelve and already you’re having these sorta thoughts.

You can’t help it, despite your ‘ironic’ actions; you’re pretty mature for your age. And, yeah, puberty and all that is gonna start up soon; you’re almost twelve anyway, so there’s that.

Plus… those creepy dreams aren’t any help, you can’t stop having them, they change so often, they’re almost like memories. But that’s crazy, you’ve always lived at the orphanage, you’ve never lived in an apartment and you’ve never seen the ocean before! Sometimes in the dreams, you sit at the strange looking computer and you’re typing at it, in orange text, while in a little box shows up on the screen and people are talking to you, in pink, cyan, and emerald text.

It’s almost like your letters to Jake and Roxy or when you talk with Jane, it feels like that. Only… you feel lonely when you do it, you like those dreams but you also hate them. There are other dreams, like you fighting with a really cool katana against giant red robot things, or you’re rapping with two awesome robots.

But there are dreams, where you are in the purple realm, you know the name now, it’s Derse. That name is odd to you, and sometimes, you feel like you’re in that realm, even when you’re awake, but that’s only if you’re spacing out. While you’re in the Derse dreams, sometimes you see a young girl floating around in the sky. She’s the only other human and you try to go after her, try to take her home.

You think she’s Roxy, you feel that weird feeling for this girl just as you do when Roxy sends you a letter. When you look at the sky as you chase this sleeping girl, you see something in the distance, a blue orb with something gold floating by it.

You don’t know how you know this, but you feel that Jake and Jane are there, sleeping soundly. Oh, but you know they aren’t really sleeping there, and you and this girl (who you are 99.9999 ect. percent correct is Roxy), are not on Derse either. Derse and the gold planet exist, but those aren’t for you, they are for four others.

How do you know that?

You don’t know, you just… you know, yeah? Hard to explain, really, your brain loves to fuck you over.

Then sometimes you have very confusing dreams, of being inside green buildings that are old and look to be falling apart, on a planet with stormy, colorful skies above you and toxic gas hundreds of feet below you. In these dreams, you aren’t doing much (they don’t last long, only for a minute or two it seems like), but you’re with a boy in shorts and a gray dress jacket, a green gas mask on his face that reminds you of a skull. 

You know that the eyes hidden behind the dark lenses are emerald, just like Jake’s. You are always holding his hand in the dreams, you feel for him, but you don’t know what he really feels for you.

You both adore and despise those little dreams; they are like a treat you want but is always taken from you at the last minute, leaving you with nothing. It’s a dream you have after Jake sends you a letter, you don’t understand it, but you wait for the dream. You wonder if the other boy is Jake if he were a teenager. You hope so; you’d like that, being close in age.

Your emotions and dreams are fucking up with one another; you have emotional attachment to events and people in the dreams without understanding why.

It makes you wonder… are they really dreams or are they memories from another life?

-

_Dear Jake,_

_I asked Jane to teach me how to sew, so far I suck at it. Like, I suck big time, my sucking is more powerful than a vacuum cleaner on its strongest setting when dealing with a carpet that’s been coated in the worst kind of shit you can cover a carpet with. That’s how bad. Plus I keep poking my palms, not happy about that. Jane thinks it’s funny that I never prick a finger but I always jab my palms, she said I should probably wear gloves._

_Who the hell wears gloves when sewing?_

_Probably me, I’ll make it seem ironic, think I can get away with it if I do that? Probably, cause, you know, I’m Dirk Strider, irony is my greatest talent._

_So, it’s November, our birthdays are coming up. Anything you want? I’ll get you something nice, I’ve been saving up money. Gotta get Roxy something cool too, I’ve got something in mind for her, already started working on it. But you sir, are a pain to shop for._

_Speaking of gifts, I was wondering if maybe this year you could call me on my birthday, I would really love to talk to you on the phone rather than through letters. Here’s the number for the orphanage_

_###-###-####_

_If you don’t want to, I understand._

_Anyway, can’t wait for your letter._

_-Dirk_

\--

_Greetings dirk!_

_Ah well you cant be a master on your first try you should just keep practicing and everything will end up aces chap! Say why are you trying to learn to sew anyway? Got another crazy project in mind? This doesnt mean youve given up on building robots right??? Because remember you do owe me a fighting robot! I want to see how well a human can fight an automaton in fisticuffs! Id build it myself but i want to see what you can come up with lad._

_Well its a little early to be exchanging birthday gifts but roxy said shes found something to help with your sewing. I do hope you like them im not sure why anyone would want gloves without fingers. But i suppose you would because of your dang blasted irony shtick you little punk._

_But about the phone call i do suppose i owe you at least one after all weve been friends since you were five and we havent even done this yet! I promise to call you on that day ill try to call at three your time i do hope thats okay. I want my best friend to have a happy birthday. Also this can be your birthday gift to me ive been wanting to hear what you sound like for a while now!_

_Until we speak again_

_-Jake_

_hey dirky im totally hijacking this letter to tell you happy early birthday! i got you leather fingerless gloves like all the cool kids wear and you are the number 1 cool kid in the world so you totally need em_

_i cant wait to see what youre making for me! take your time sweety dont rush yourself on it i can be patient_

_love roxy! ;)_

\--

You sit on your bed, nervous as all hell. You look at the clock, it’s your twelfth birthday and the clock on the wall says it’s almost three. You try to occupy your time with the sewing kit and material that Jane got you, you’ve gotten a little better since your last letter to Jake, and hopefully you will get good enough at this so you can make a business out of the cool puppets you want to make.

Glancing down, you stare at the start of a project in your lap, your hands busy threading string through the eye of the needle. You look at the fingerless gloves you have on, you really like them, they look so badass and they do protect your palms. Roxy knows just want to do, good girl, best bud. Speaking of her, you’ve finished Roxy’s gift, its a little robot kitty you made out of mechanical toys you took apart and parts from the old television set after the screen stopped showing pictures. The little cat moves around and meows when you push a button on the back.

You’re rather proud of it, it took you two years to figure out how to do robotics just from reading books people donated (people will donate anything to you guys), but you love it. Plus, you feel like you have a natural talent for it, or at least the weird dreams let you have a talent for it. You’re pretty damn sure you built the robots.

You were able to ship the toy in the mail and it will be to New York soon, Roxy will love it, you know she will. But right now you were waiting for Jake’s gift; you hope that you won’t embarrass yourself.

The clock now reads three and you stare at the cordless phone. You hold your breath, counting down the seconds. Where's the ring? Did he forget, oh God, you hope he didn’t forget!

You snap out of it when you hear the sharp thrill of the phone’s ring and you grab it, picking it up. “H-Hello?” You ask in a shaky voice, you are so nervous; your whole body is shaking.

“Dirk? Is that you?” You know that voice anywhere, though it sounded slightly different on the phone, you knew it was Jake.

“Yes, it’s me.” You say, grinning. Holy shit, you're actually talking to Jake Harley, your best friend and your hero. This… this had to be one of the greatest moments of your life! “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

There was a laugh from the other end, it makes your heart beat fast. “Haha! Yes, gosh, it took us a long time to finally do this. How are you doing, lad?”

“I’m trying not to freak the fuck out, to be honest.”

“Language, my boy.” Jake chuckles, you know he’s smiling. “I understand, it’s always a big thing when you’re speaking with someone you admire.”   
  
“You don’t know the half of it.” You blurt out. “Thank you so much, dude, this is… haha, like a dream come true. God damn.” You run a hand through your hair, you’re freaking out so much right now, you feel like your heart is gonna burst through your rib cage.   
  
“It’s no problem at all, Strider!”   
  
You and Jake talk for two hours, going on and on about whatever comes to mind. You feel at peace right now, you’re just so content as you listen quietly to Jake telling you about plans he had for his company.   
  
“Say, Dirk?” You love how he says your name. “I hate to be the bee in your bonnet, but I have to get off. I have an event to attend to tonight and though I’d love to continue talking to you, I cannot miss this.” He sighs softly.   
  
You frown, understanding that Jake is a busy many with priorities before you, but still, you weren’t done talking. “It’s cool, we can talk more some other time, right?” You ask, sounding hopeful.   
  
“Absotively posilutely, boy! I’m not just going to have this be a one-time thing!”   
  
You smile a little at this. “Thanks man, that’s awesome. We can set up another time to call later, yeah? In our next letters?”

“Of course.” You can hear the smile in his voice. “Good bye, talk to you later, Dirk.”   
  
“Yeah, later.” He hangs up and you sit there, looking at the phone before curling up. “Fuck, I love you…”   
  
TBC  
  
\--  
  
Next chapter will be shorter then this one, but if it isn’t, I’ve got a very special surprise for all of you.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should make this story go on longer, but… I am terrible, I am the worst, I don’t want to write a lot, haha. Because I’m a lazy college student, that’s why. 
> 
> Also, I fucked up last chapter and said that Jake’s birthday was December 1st, which it isn’t, it’s suppose to be April 21st. Well, for Grandpa it’s that date. But I forgot this little fact, so let’s just say that Jake has the day he crashed to Earth as his fake birthday, but he always thinks that December 1st is his real birthday. At least that’s what he says; only Jane knows what day he came to Earth.

It is 1991 now, and you are fifteen. 

  
You are also the proud owner of a bitchin’ cap and your own fucking katana, kept in your Tech-Hop Fetch Modus. Holy shit do you love your friends.  
  
When you turned fifteen a few months ago, Jane got you a sylladex, while Jake had gotten you a katana, one that, according to him, was unbreakable. So far, there is no damage to it at all, so it could possibly be unbreakable. The cap is a gift from Roxy who said that your idea of wearing a hat on a shirt was stupid and not ironic at all.  
  
So as an act of ‘good will’, she bought you some ordinary hat that you wear in your leisure time. Though it does mess with your amazing hair, you like the hat. You are a hat person, there is no denying this fact, you will just have to live with that. And you will, cause you’re fucking Dirk Strider.  
  
Your midnight fights have come to a halt, especially since Jane found out after you got one hell of a nasty shiner to your left eye during one of her visits. She won’t let you do it and said that if you needed money, she could help. Her visits to Texas were becoming less frequent and that honestly upsets you, she says that life in Washington is demanding and she has to deal with that.  
  
Like the little teenage bitch that you are, you complain. She ignores your complaints and demands that she just stay in Texas, saying that she is waiting for someone in Maple Valley.  
  
You… don’t blame her, honestly. If you had the chance, you’d probably just jump onto a rocket board and fly away from here, explore the world, do bomb-as-shit cool junk. But no, you need to stay in Huston; you’re waiting for someone here. You’re waiting for someone you know nothing about but will mean the world to you, you’ll just never tell them that.  
  
\--  
  
Another dream, you can tell, you’re in the apartment over the ocean. You have learned from little segments of dreams over the years that the apartment is the only above-water remains of Huston, the rest is under the waves, home to the fishes now. You have come to learn that you and dream!Roxy, the one who writes in pink text to you on the computer, are the only humans left on Earth.  
  
You have also discovered that these apartment dreams take place in a future that will not exist for you in this timeline, but in another one. How do you know this? Well, your friend who writes in light gray text gave you hints and you put shit together. You’re not dumb, you figured this out quickly.  
  
These two aren’t the only ones who speak with you online; you also have Jake and Jane in your dreams. Sometimes you watch video footage of them through some special technology that light-gray-text friend sent you, Jake as a teenager looks both cute and hot, you don’t know how a man like him exists.  
  
Aside from them, you are also messaged by someone who writes in dark gray texts, but he’s a fucking prick. You do, however, love messing with him when he requests that you play games with him, as you are doing right now.  
  
 **undyingUmbrage [uu]** **began jeering** **timaeusTestified [TT]** **  
  
** **uu: HELLO DIRK.** **  
** **uu: I WANT TO PLAY A GAME.** **  
** **TT: Oh mother fuck.** **  
** **uu: WHAT DO YOu SAY??** **  
** **uu: tumut**

You roll your eyes, seeing that annoying text on the screen of your shades, what the hell did he want? Uhg, he’s probably going to make you draw him ‘porn’ again. He’s bitching at you, saying that you fucked up the order of things on Derse. Like you care, you were about to be killed by a brute, so you killed him instead.

With an exasperated sigh, you continue the conversation, talking to him about the game. What game? Oh, right, the game that you know will do some crazy-as-fuck shit to you, your friends, and to the four people who will be coming to Earth.

How do you know four people are coming to Earth? You don’t, you just… feel it? You guess? Like when a dog senses an earthquake before it happens, some shit like that.

The dream changes, the conversation with undyingUmbrage is different, as is the setting. You are in two places at once, your mind focused on both. In one place, you are on the roof of your apartment, with the robots, in the other you are in Derse. Both places have strange, blood-red lines that you know are very dangerous.

The gray-text douchebag is telling you to throw Lil’ Cal into a fire. You tell him there is no way you’re gonna do that to the C-Man. Apparently he doesn’t care, he says that Lil’ Cal, or as he calls him ‘juju’, is bad news. Like you give a shit.  
  
He sends you a drawing though, you’re… not sure what it is exactly. It looks like something a one-year old drew after finding paper and pens. The dickhead says it is you and him being ‘naughty’, you don’t see it. This guy doesn’t know that what he thinks is porn is totally safe for work. What a dork.

**uu: SOO GNARLY.**   
**uu: TO IMAGINE. WHAT FILTH MY OWN HAND HAS WROuGHT.**

You decide to give him your honest opinion.

**TT: Yeah. Gnarly is about right.**   
**TT: This is utter shit. You know that, don't you?**   
**TT: Please don't tell me you are actually incapable of understanding how bad this drawing is.**   
**uu: WHAT. NO. FuCK YOu.**   
**uu: IT'S PRETTY GOOD. AT LEAST FOR A FIRST TRY.**   
**TT: If you actually think this even qualifies as a drawing, I'm going to have to say you are literally the worst artist who has ever existed. </span>**   
**uu: WHAT THE FuCK. THIS IS HOW YOu TREAT. MY "BIRTH DAY THANK YOu GIFT"??**   
**TT: That's not a thing either.**   
**TT: You must have some wires crossed between your left brain and right brain. Like a weird perceptual disorder. Or something like that.**   
**TT: It's actually kind of fascinating that you think you achieved something visually coherent or recognizable.**   
**uu: THIS IS OuTRAGEOuS.**   
**TT: Anyway. Got to go.**   
**TT: Your drawing blows.**   
**TT: Later.**

**timaeusTestified [TT] ceased pestering undyingUmbrage [uu]**

Suddenly you hear a ping and look at a new chat window that opened on your shades.  
  
 _Hey, wake up._  
  
Your eyes open and instead of gray text, you’re looking at bright orange on your screen in a writing document. Oh great, this guy…  
  
“What do you want, AR?” You ask, sitting up at your desk. Shit, it’s morning already? You look at the desk, seeing sketches and drawings for new projects, guess you fell asleep while working.

_Sleeping at your desk like that isn’t good for your back and neck, bro._

AR, or Auto Responder 9000, was a project you started when you were thirteen. You took the old computer in the rec room and used it to create a coded program (after you tweaked the computer to handle this project) of your thirteen year old mind. You discovered a way to upload it all into your shades and now he’s become a computer on your face. One that has gained more knowledge then you expected him to.  
  
You have also discovered that he’s a fucking prick. God, you were terrible as a thirteen year old, plus, he’s developed his own touches to your old personality so he’s ten times worse. He’s nice to Jane though, you’ve noticed that, which is good. You wonder how he’d react to Roxy and Jake.  
  
He would probably be nice to Roxy, since he is a piece of you after all. Jake… you’ve seen how he sometimes comments on your gushing, so he might not care for Jake like you do.  
  
Speaking of him, you’re expecting a phone call from him today, which you can’t wait for. Today is the day you plan to tell him your feelings, you don’t know why, but November 11th just felt like the perfect day to confess your true feelings for the daring adventurer.  
  
But what to do, what to say?

You can’t just blurt out ‘I’m in love with you’ all willy nilly, shit doesn’t work like that outside of soap operas and crappy romantic-based movies. And those trashy romance novels, which you have ironically read a few times, but you’d never tell anyone that.  
  
“Hal, what should I do about Jake?”  
  
 _Just tell the idiot how you feel, the worst he can do is say no._  
  
“If he says no, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve only ever had feelings for one person, and that’s Jake!” You walk over to your bed and collapse on it.  
  
 _You’re being dramatic. Again._  
  
“I know I am, but I have every right. I want to tell Jake how I feel, how I’ve been feeling for him for so long, but… what if he never wants to speak to me again after this? Gay people don’t exactly get a hell of a lot of praise.”  
  
 _Knowing that old fool, he’ll probably be shocked and tell you something like ‘I’m flattered but you’re too young for me’. Bet you that’s what the problem’s gonna be. Dirk, you’re fifteen, he’s ancient._  
  
“Eighty is not ancient. Plus he looks like he’s fifty or something; the guy takes great care of himself.”  
  
 _Whatever. Just stop being a huge bitch and talk to the guy. Or do I have to do it for you?_  
  
“I’m done with you.” You remove your shades and put them into the side table drawer. You hear a few pings, meaning he’s pissed and messaging you, but you ignore him. AR can go to hell for all you care.  
  
Sighing, you roll over on your stomach, burying your face into your pillow, your thoughts buzzing like a million pissed-off bees. You want to confess to Jake, you’ve been dropping hints since you were thirteen to him, but he hasn’t said shit about them. He probably doesn’t even know what you’re talking about.  
  
But Jake isn’t the only issue on your mind; you are having trouble with thoughts about the memory-dreams. They are as if you had just experienced them in reality rather then in the dreamscape. Like, they literally just happened, especially the ones you’ve had in the past few days.

You feel like… something significant happened today, at a different time, in a different place, in a different universe.

When you honestly think about it, you sound like you’re on some bad drug trip or something. It all sounds so stupid.

\--

The phone rings and you’re quick to grab it. “Hello this is Jake Harley speaking, who’s calling please?” You say as you hold the phone to your ear with your shoulder, hands returning to cleaning your old flintlock pistol.

 _“Why do you keep answering the phone like that?”_ You perk up at the sound of Dirk’s voice.

“Strider, my lad! You’re calling a bit early today, haha! Something on your mind? Oh!” You grin brightly. “Did you come up with a new idea or something?”

 _“Actually…”_ He hesitates, something must be wrong, he’s always straight to the point. _“I wanted to talk to you about something. Something huge, Jake.”_

You set down your cleaning tool and pistol. “What is it, Dirk? Are you alright?” You ask, worry obvious in your voice.

_“I don’t know if I’m honestly ‘alright’ in the eyes of a lot of people, but… Jake, you know you’re my best bro right?”_

“Yes, I am one hundred and ten percent positive that you and I are the best of bros.”

There is a pause before heavy sigh, you hear him mumble, it sounds like he said he can’t do this. “Dirk, please tell me what’s wrong, you’re going to make me worry and we both know that’s not good for either of us.”

_“I love you.”_

Now you pause, a bit taken back by what you think he just said. “I-I’m dreadfully sorry, did you just say…”

_“I said I love you. I’m in love with you Jake, and… I have been for a long time.”_

You don’t know what to say, but you remember dreams of kissing Dirk’s severed head on some ruins in front of an erupting volcano with a dragon flying around, all the while, you’re just a fifteen year old in a green skull computer who almost cracked open his noggin after falling from a height.

You know that dream all too well, you both love and hate it. You love that you kissed Dirk, someone that you’ve been pondering feelings toward for a while, but you hate that you were forced to kiss his severed head to save your three dead friends, as told to you by his fucking auto responder. You never liked it, you never liked that AR thing even when Dirk happily told you about him on the phone and online in the dreams.

But you snap back to reality when you hear Dirk ask if you’re still there, his voice sounding defeated, like he’s accepted a rejection to his feelings.

“Dirk… I care about you greatly, maybe even more than I should when it comes to our outstanding friendship. But…”

_“You don’t feel that way for me… I get it.”_

“Hush boy, let me finish.” You say, standing up from your seat, pacing the floor. Luckily for you, the phone is cordless; don’t need to get tangled up in that blasted cord again. “I care for you, and I could possible love you as well, but Dirk… you’re fifteen!”

You know he must have a look of confusion painted on that poker face of his. _“What?”_

“You’re fifteen Dirk, I’m very much your senior. I can’t be with you at this age! Technically that would label me as a pedophile and we both don’t want me going to prison!”

_“Are… are you fucking serious? That’s what the problem is here? My age? I’ll be sixteen next month!”_

“But that’s still too young. Even if we both want this, there is an age limit. Dirk, you need to be eighteen for this to be legal in the states.”

_“Then I’ll move somewhere else! Jake, please, I want to be with you, I’ve only loved one person and it’s you.”_

You sigh, you were afraid of that. You understand though, hero worship is known to turn romantic if it continues for a long time. “Dirk, listen to me, I know that it hurts but I’m not rejecting you. I’m putting a pause on this. When you reach the age of consent, I will be there to sweep you off your feet and kiss you. It will be so bloody romantic that it will be like a scene in a movie.”

_“Where a volcano is erupting in the background and we’re smooching while totally desecrating some ancient ruins.”_

“Exac-! Wait… what…?”

_“I’d say you’d be kissing just my cold, dead, bloody lips because my head was cut off, but that sounded gruesome.”_

“That… Dirk, that sounds a lot like m-my dreams…”

He pauses again, he’s quiet. Too quiet for your taste, you don’t like that. How could Dirk know about that? You’ve honestly never told anyone of your dreams of that island in the Pacific, fighting white monsters any time you stepped outside, watching pumpkins appear out of nowhere, and having a difficult round of fisticuffs with a robot that looks like Dirk.

Dirk finally speaks up and you stop walking. _“I know about the memories, Jake. I know about Derse, Prospit, and Skaia. I know that in the dreams, your last name is English and Jane’s is Crocker. That Roxy and I live in the future where we’re the only two humans left.”_

Your blood runs cold at what he says next. _“I know about Two by Three Prong Day and the release of Sburb Alpha."_

“You picked today to call me… because of November eleventh, 2011…” You run a hand through your hair.

_“In the other universe where the dreams take place, you know about my feelings because AR tells you so you can kiss my head.”_

You chuckle softly, rubbing your eyes. “Bloody fuck, Strider… we’re fifteen then.”

_“I know that. And I know that Jane and Roxy must be having these dreams too, they must know about the game.”_

“Roxy knows something, she use to come to me about nightmares where red monsters would try to kill her, with white forks painted on them.”

_“The batterwitch’s drones.”_

You nod, even if he can’t see it. “Yes. Damn it, Strider, why didn’t you tell me you knew all of this.”

_“Because one, the dreams are fucking erratic and barely flow in a straight line. And two, because it sounds so stupid when you say shit like that aloud, you know what I’m sayin’?”_

“Yes.” You spend an hour discussing these things with Dirk, telling him that the reason that he feels he needs to stay in Huston is because at some point in the mid nineties, your guardians from the dreams will be coming to Earth just as you four had. Only they will be your children, through ectobiological engineering.

You are waiting for your little girl, you’re waiting for Jade. Dirk will be waiting for Dave, Roxy will find Rose, and Jane… well… you know she will get that boy John, but you don’t know what becomes of her, your memory on that is very fuzzy. Actually, your memory of any of the children is fuzzy, which makes you wonder if something happens.

But you finish the call with returning to the original subject at hand. “Dirk, please wait for me in a few years. I will make sure to come for you when you’re eighteen.”

_“… I know Jake, but still.”_

“In time, Strider, in time.”

\--

The memories of times that had not happened yet shift a little, you still see things of your past, but you also see some weird things in your future. You know that you and Jake get together, but your relationship with Jane gets worse because she too has feelings for the green-eyed dork.

You’re happy that Roxy gives up drinking in the dreams, but you worry about Jane. And Jake, at first, you’re always together, but you get… clingy. Fuck, you hate those dreams where you see him get uncomfortable with you, damnit.

Whatever, you don’t try to dwell on the dreams now; you’re busy with living on your own, in an apartment that you faked your age to get. You got a job as a mechanic to help pay for it, but when your smuppet business took off on the internet (wow, that place is full of perverts), you got enough to live comfortably without the mechanic job. Plus you finally left the orphanage, being seventeen and on your own is fucking cool.

You got a place in Huston, top floor, really nice place. Just one bedroom and one bathroom, small and comfortable enough for you, though in time you will be sharing it with someone else.

You think you should move out, find a place with two bedrooms, but you rarely use your bed anyway, you like to sleep on the futon you bought. The kid will use the bed, though you might need to make a crib or something, babies move around a lot, like little worms.

You pop your back and stretch, setting aside your smuppet commission you’re working on. Can’t stay hunched over like that for too long, uhg, you’re feeling your age. Haha, the fuck, you’re still a teenager, you’re not old.

You get up, heading to the kitchen and open the fridge. The motor for it sputters, making you frown. You either need to fix that or get a new one, stupid old as time fridge. You grab a can of orange soda and open it, taking a drink just as you hear a knock on the door.

Who the fuck is that? You don’t know anyone who would come over unannounced, and you turned down your sick beats after getting that noise complaint from the neighbors so who the hell is it?

Setting down your soda and fixing your cap on your head, you walk to the door and open it. “What do you- oh my fucking God.” You say, looking at the man in front of you.

“Hello Strider, happy eighteenth birthday.”

 

 

 

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been waiting forever to write that last scene! I’d like to thank my good friend verzisphere for drawing the picture at the end; I commissioned him months ago for it as a little present for all you wonderful readers who have stuck around this long. I suggest you guys check out his art, he’s a great artist (plus he’s on Ao3 as well!) Thank you so much for drawing that for me, Verzi!
> 
> http://verzisnsfwblog.tumblr.com/ Here's his art account, check it out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are sweethearts, thank you all for the comments, kudos, and bookmarks. You guys are making me continue this, thank you everyone! I bought that commission for you all. 
> 
> Fair warning, there is a love making scene in this. It’s for my moirail, the one who I tormented with the whole plot for this fanfic in 2013, way before I ever started writing this. But yeah, she loves BroGrandpa and I’m totally up for writing something with them in Dirk’s bed. 
> 
> However, it won’t be a full on love scene, I’m doing that for the readers who aren’t interested in that sort of thing in a BroGrandpa fic (which happens a lot of those sort of fics). Yaoi, if you want the rest of your Jake and Dirk smut, you’re gonna have to rp it with me, hun. 

“Hello Strider, happy eighteenth birthday.”

You… don’t know what to say as you stare at him, at Jake Harley, here in the flesh in front of you. You think you blink a few times, and before you know it, you’re pulling him inside, touching his hand as you do. Jake’s hand is big, warm, and roughed up from years of hands-on work and from holding his precious guns.

The two of you stand there in front of the still-open door of your apartment, and finally, you speak. “Jake… why are you… how did you find me?”   
  
“I used the address from your last letter to me. And I’m here because I promised to come for you when you turned eighteen.”

You didn’t even realize that today is December third, your birthday, Jake came to see you on your birthday. “Holy shit.” You breathe out, turning from him to the kitchen. You grab your soda and take a few long drinks before turning to him. “I can’t believe I’m actually looking at you, here, in my home. My hero, my best friend, my…”

Jake chuckled lightly. “Never took you for being someone who could be so shell-shocked, not gonna give me that cool Strider air?”

You snap out of it and put on a poker face. “I always have cool Strider air.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Jake laughed a bit louder, stepping outside and grabbing a suitcase. He brought a suitcase, oh God, was he staying with you for a visit? Is he staying with you forever? You really hope for the latter, not the former. Fuck, you sound so lame.

You walk to the futon and sit down on it, Jake sits on the other end. All you can do is stare at the older man as he looks around from where he is, seeming a bit confused by some of the pictures you had posted on the wall. Now you’re embarrassed by your weird puppet posters and printed pictures, but he doesn’t seem to mind.   
  
“Is this a smuppet?” He asks, picking up the one you had been working on. He gives it a squeeze and hears a squeak from it. “Oh! That’s rather silly and cute!”

“What’s your answer?”   
  
He pauses, glancing at you in silence. “My answer to what?”

You want to slap your forehead, but you don’t, cause you need to act cool. “To… when I told you I was in love with you.” You and Jake haven’t spoken about your currently-unrequited feelings for him since that day a few years ago. You love Jake, dearly, but damnit, how could he forget!? His whole reason for being here today is because of that!

Jake scratches the back of his head. “I wish to be with you Dirk, but you have to remember, you’re still young, you have the chance to find someone else. I’m just a bumbling ol’ fool, so many years your senior.”

“And you think I give two flying fucks about that?”

“Not in the slightest, actually.”

“Damn fuckin’ straight, Harley. I’m in love with you, and honestly, that’s not easy for me to say considering that I’m often an emotionless asshole. So you know that I’m being serious about wanting to be with you.”

Jake reaches over to remove your shades. He’s not being romantic like some stupid cliché from one of his movies, wanting to see your ‘mysterious eyes’ or some bull fuck like that. No, you know he’s doing this so that he can actually look at you, to read your eyes to see if you are being completely serious.

“Strider,” He says, keeping eye contact, it unnerves you a bit to not have your only physical defense on, “we can make this work, but you need to know understand that… in time, I’ll be…”

You know what he’s going to say, you know it all to well, but your put a hand over his mouth. Striders don’t do the finger-shush thing, nah, you use your whole fucking palm. “Look, I know I don’t have that long of time to be with you in a relationship, shit, I’d give anything to have been around you when you were growing up, but I can deal with this. I want to be with you, Jake, and… I’ll try not to be all up in your sauce twenty four seven.”

He chuckles lightly. “I highly doubt that.”

You crack the tiniest of smiles, since you don’t do that anymore, nope, too cool for school on that shit. You move closer to him, removing the smuppet from his hands, leaning in close to him. He’s smells like aftershave and the slight scent of metal and gunpowder.

And then he pulls back, shaking his head. “What the hell man?” You frown, looking at him in disappointment.

“I am not the sort of fellow who simply locks lips after a proposal to date.”

“Are… are you kiddin’ me?”

“Nope! I happen to be the sort of fellow who likes a bit of romance! I don’t kiss until after the first date!” He grinned, giving you his signature move; double pistols and a wink.

Motherfuckin’ swoon.

You sit in your living room with Jake, chatting it up with him, telling him about what you’re doing nowadays. He tells you about his projects and his work, how Roxy will take over Skaianet for him when he retires.

Roxy will do well with the company; she’s the smartest person you know, even if she’s got a slight drinking problem. Which you know is because of worry, oh God how you wish she didn’t worry about what will happen in a few years. You’d drink to, but that’s not your style, you like to strife out your problems.

Gonna have to teach the kid to strife early on, get him ready for what’s to come.

You talk with Jake for hours, even when he cooks you a meal in your kitchen. You promptly ignore his comments about how you need to eat better, take-out is not good for a growing boy. Like you need to grow more, shit, you’re taller then Jake when he’s got his shoes off, and you’re eighteen.

“You know, I have all the letters you’ve sent me.” You tell him casually, as if in passing, while you eat the weird pasta dish he made. It’s not bad; you didn’t even know you had pasta.

“Hm?” Jake blinked, swallowing his bite. “You do?”

“Yep, all kept in some shoe boxes, probably gonna have to find a better way to store them.”   
  
“A scrapbook works, that’s what I do with mine.”

You raise an eyebrow. “You kept my letters?”

Jake smiles a bit, nodding. “Of course, they are special to me. They’re letters from my biggest fan.” He says as he reaches over, ruffling your hair after he flicks your hat off. You protest, attempting to fix your hair before putting the cap back on when he takes his hand away.

“God, you are such a dork.” You say, though it’s obvious that you appreciate that he’s kept your silly letters. You’re happy that he cares about you, unlike how you’ll feel in the other universe when he ignores you.

But that’s your fault, you won’t give him space, you’ll suffocate him with your needy affection. You won’t do that to this Jake, you know you can’t, you don’t want to lose him so soon.

He smiles softly at you before sighing. “We only have a few years.” He says, as if he had just read your thoughts. “I’m sorry for making you wait.”

“I’m pretty patient, surprisingly.” You reply, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. “I mean, I’ve waited this long to meet you. I think I’ve wanted to meet you since I was five or something.”

“I do believe you were that old, sending me a letter with drawings all over the envelope.”

“Uhg, my art was shitty then.” You scoff and he laughs.

“I love the little drawing you did of me! You sure know how to capture my good side.” He said as he posed and you snorted, giving him a light shove, earning another laugh from him. “But in all seriousness, hehe, I’m glad you sent me that letter.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure that even if I hadn’t, we still would have found one another.”

He shrugs, looking at you. “Possibly, but still, I am very happy you sent it, lad.”

The two of you sit in silence for a while and you feel at ease, closing your eyes and just enjoying this, just being with the man you can actually say you love. You’re not one for expressing your emotions, but here, you feel that you can.

Well, just with Jake, like hell is anyone else gonna see that you can smile.

-

To be honest, you have had feelings for Dirk for quite some time, even before that phone call. When you were younger, you sometimes dreamed of blue dames and ladies exploring tombs, but there were always a few dreams where you saw a young man with blond hair and the strangest looking tinted spectacles you’d ever lay eyes on.

You told Jane about these dreams when you were a lad, she was rather confused and told you to keep them under your hat. A man dreaming about another man and enjoying said dreams wouldn’t fly well if spoken to others. You know that it isn’t always like that nowadays, but you grew up in a different time.

Sometimes you wonder if things would be better if you and Dirk had grown up together, that there wasn’t the age gap and the fact that you know damn well that something will happen to you in a few years and you won’t be able to see your little girl grow up outside of glimpses of her in Prospit.

Oh how you will miss her, and you know she will miss you too, but right now is not the time to be thinking of your daughter/granddaughter. Right now is the time to be thinking of the dashing blond you hold in your arms, kissing you, wanting you.

Your romantic relationship has gotten a bit frisky in the past while, gosh, has it been over two months since you arrived at Dirk’s door. You have been staying with him since then, Dirk’s been letting you sleep on his bed when the two of you don’t fall asleep on the futon.

You called Roxy later in the evening of your arrival and she screamed in delight, saying something about how the sexual tension was so strong between the two of you that it could be seen from space. You sputter and tell her that you haven’t even kissed yet, she replies by making kissing sounds.

Luckily Dirk steals the phone to tell her to stop, only to say that he’ll suck your face when he’s damn good and ready.

Ah youth, it’s wasted on the young…

Dirk snaps you out of your thoughts by nipping your neck, earning him a throaty moan from you. Right, you’re in the middle of performing relations with your favorite chum. “Lost in thought, old man?” Dirk chuckles, nipping you again.

“Just wondering what position I want you in when I’m pounding you hard enough for your neighbors on the bottom floor to hear you.”

“Ooooh, kinky.” He smirks; his dirty commentary is rubbing off on you horribly and he loves it. “Well, I’d like to look at the face of the man who will be making me do that, so I’ll just be on my back.”

“To do that, you have to stop sitting on my lap.”   
  
“Aww, but I want to tell Santa what a naught boy I’ve been.” You push the laughing goofball off your lap and move him to lay on the pillows of his bed. He look down at him, not seeing the bed behind Dirk’s head, but the dark green floor of a tomb, a red and yellow gasmask on Dirk’s face, a green skull one is being worn by you.

You suppose that even then the two of you would be in a similar situation, except that you have experience this time and you won’t be a bumbling ninny like your other-self.

“Jake.” He snaps you out of it again, looking at you with those orange eyes of his. “Have you ever been with a man?”

“Never, but I have fancied a few gents in my time, however, none of them have caught my eye like you have.” You say softly, noticing that even in the dim light in the room, you can see the slightest hint of color on his freckled cheeks.

“Jeez, that was some sweet corn you just said there, Jake.”

“Hehe, I am a romantic at heart.” You kiss him softly, running a hand down his chest, no shirt in the way to prevent you from feeling his warm skin. You feel a few scars from his fighting days, he still fights, but he doesn’t get hurt anymore. You’re loaded in scars; Dirk commented earlier on them when you removed your shirt for him to see.

Dirk likes them; he likes a guy who can show that he’s been in a few scruffs. You don’t tell him that a lot of them came from your lack of grace.

Your hands move to his sides, trailing down to his hips, feeling his back rise under you. You kissed him more, moaning a little when his tongue enters your mouth. It’s been a long time since you’ve been intimate with anyone, luckily Dirk is the person you can be this way with now instead of some one-night stand.

His arms wrap around you, rubbing at your back, scratching a little when you continue to snog. He presses his hips up against your hips, letting you feel his want through his tight, black jeans.

“Are you sure about this?” You ask softly, breaking the kiss.

“I’m one hundred percent sure on this, Jake. Are you?”

You smile and touch his cheek. “Yes I am. Do you have the proper tools for this?”

“Condoms and lube? I already placed them on the nightstand.”

Ah, your dear friend/lover is wise to think ahead. But then again, he does run a puppet-based sex shop and site from home so… you’re going to stop thinking on this and just get to work on pleasing Dirk.

You honestly don’t know if he’s a virgin, he won’t tell you and you don’t want to really indulge on stories of lovers past, just as he really, REALLY doesn’t want to know about your love life.

You reach over him to grab the essential items, only for him to grab your wrist. “Whoa, whoa big guy, not just yet.”

“And why not?” You ponder. “I thought you were ready for me to take you.”

“I happen to like being romanced a little before being fucked, if you catch my drift.”

Ah, he wants more touching and pleasing. Well, looks like you’ll have to oblige. You lean in, ready to kiss him, but again, he stops you. “What now?”

“I want to give you a bj.”

“A what?”

“A blow job.”

You just stare and he rolls his eyes. “I’m gonna suck your dick, old man.” He says and shoves you down onto the bed. “Ever had it done before?”

“I-I can’t recall…” You say, a bit stunned by how blunt and casual Dirk was about such a subject. Then you remember that this is Dirk Strider you’re dealing with and you relax a little.

“Lovely, guess I’m about to give you an adventure.” He said, tugging down your boxers, allowing him to finally see the more vital region of your body. You hadn’t let him before, considering this is the furthest you’ve gotten with him, and you’re a bit embarrassed, especially by his reaction.

Dirk just seems to stare at your exposed hard-on, blinking twice. “You’re huge.”

“W-well, we Harleys are, uhh…” You don’t know how to react to what he just said, especially when he wraps his long fingers around you.

“Thank God I don’t have a gag reflex.” He said, smirking as he opens his mouth and takes you in. Okay, he’s too good at what he’s doing; you don’t believe him to be a virgin for a second.

Dirk teases you with this for only a minute or two before he gives you the proper tools you’ll need to please him. You’re a little nervous, as is he, but that’s alright. You kiss him softly, teasingly as you prep him and then yourself.

You never thought that you’d ever make love to a man, let alone your best friend, but here you are, pleasing him on his bed. You blush, hearing him moan your name, begging for more. In your mind, you remember dreams of doing this on one of the fallen pillars in The Land of Mounds and Xenon. Talk about desecrating some sacred tombs…

You don’t last as long as he does, but that’s okay, you help him finish off. When he finishes, you lay down, pulling him close to you. “How did I do?” You ask softly in his ear, hearing him pant.

“Fucking amazing.” He breathes out, turning to look at you, giving you a kiss. “Glad I waited, best fucking Valentine’s Day ever." 

“Haha, a romantic evening of watching the telly, eating Chinese take-out and making love on your tiny bed counts as the best Valentine’s ever?” You ask, rather amused as you hold the blond against your chest.

“Mmhmm, especially cause you’re involved.” He kisses the side of your mouth, basking in the afterglow.

You lay with him, quietly talking about whatever until he passes out in your arms. You smile sadly at him, knowing that you’re going to have to return home soon and that you won’t be able to do this often. Especially with what was going to happen in a few years or so.

Well, for now, you’re going to enjoy being with Dirk and worry about those other issues later.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine’s Day, Dirk’s gonna start raising Dave next chapter. No one knows how badly I’ve been wanting to write baby Dave, I adore brotherly Dirk raising his lil’ bro.


End file.
